A friend of the ex-Arkansas state senator found shot dead in her home this month was charged with her murder on Monday.

Rebecca Lynn O’Donnell, 48, was ordered held without bond after being charged with capital murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in the death of 57-year-old former Arkansas State Senator Linda Collins-Smith.

The accused killer had worked on the former lawmaker’s campaign and the pair were “good friends,” said Ken Yang, a former communications director for Collins-Smith.

“They traveled together and did grassroots stuff, even after Linda lost her re-election,” Yang told CBS News.

Collins-Smith, who was elected as a Republican in 2011 but lost a reelection bid last year, was found slain in her house in Pocahontas June 4, at least two days after her neighbors reported hearing gunshots.

Her body was in an “advanced state of decomposition” and it took authorities two days to identify the remains using dental record, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

O’Donnell, who was arrested Friday, appeared in the Randolph County Courthouse Monday, handcuffed in a checkered black-and-gray jail uniform and bulletproof vest, the paper reported.

She stayed mum as a public defender filed an affidavit of indigency. No plea was entered during the approximately 15 minute hearing.

“We are sickened and upset that someone so close to Linda would be involved in such a heartless crime,” Collins-Smith’s family members said in a statement.

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